I was told the other day that the life span of the average wideband O2 sensor is like 200 to 1000 miles. Is that true? Cuz if it is, then that sucks. I was planning to get one and have it replaced by stock O2 sensor (by wiring it to the harness of course). I was planning to get the Bosch LSU4. I don't want the wideband just for tuning, I want it for everyday use....****!

 

Honda began using the NTK L1H1 wideband sensor starting with the 5th gens (92-95).

Running rich will kill a sensor in short order.

Can you see a correlation between a/f richness and useful service life of the O2 sensor?

 

You need a controller to handle the wideband. They don't hook up like a normal narrowband does - look at the Innovate LM-1 for a good controller. The LSU4 I believe is good for 10k to 20k miles.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by raene &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You need a controller to handle the wideband. They don't hook up like a normal narrowband does - look at the Innovate LM-1 for a good controller. The LSU4 I believe is good for 10k to 20k miles. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ok, so let's say that I have a whole wideband kit (LSU4 sensor, controller, display, etc.) I can't just splice into the wires of the wideband and hook them up to the connector for my stock sensor? They don't read the same voltages?

 

No, they don't, but the LM-1 unit has a narrowband output. You hook up that output to your stock computer.

I still haven't figured out what happens if you leave the O2 sensor heater circuits disconnected, though. So I think that means you keep your normal O2 sensor installed, install the LSU4 sensor into your downpipe just before your catalytic converter, use a large piece of metal to radiate heat away from the LSU4 (heat is bad for widebands) and just use the narrowband output to fool the ECU.

 

narrow band reads 0v-1v and wide band reads 0v-5v

 

If your using an EMS obviously you could splice into the 4 O2 sensor wires, but otherwise no

 

I dont really know the answer to all of this for sure but it seems a little unlikely that the sensors are only good for a few thousand miles.

If they were used in an assembly line car that sensor was obviously made to last the for some sort of maintenance interval, there is no way Honda is using a
+- $300 sensor that needs to be replaced every 5k 10 or hell even 20k miles would be rediculous at that price.

also if the sensors performance degraded enough over that short of a time that it could not accurately report A/F away from 14.7 it would be worthless to the CX computer, or whatever car they put it in, to use. If needed please correct me.

The wideband was put in those cars to get better gas mileage/economy. Why in the hell would you want better fuel economy if you had to spend that much to replace a sensor all the time

sounds to me like the sensor would have to last longer then a couple thousand miles.

im sure their are enough dyno users on here who could clear this up.

So dyno owners, how often do you replace your widebands?

 

http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/lm1.php


Try out this kit, its a good deal. You could also do the DIY wideband

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dominate9 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was told the other day that the life span of the average wideband O2 sensor is like 200 to 1000 miles. Is that true? Cuz if it is, then that sucks. I was planning to get one and have it replaced by stock O2 sensor (by wiring it to the harness of course). I was planning to get the Bosch LSU4. I don't want the wideband just for tuning, I want it for everyday use....****!</TD></TR></TABLE>

No its not. 200-1000 miles is the lifespan of ANY O2 sensor when using leaded gas. The Bosch LSU specs claim a lifespan of 100,000 km (60,000mi) when used with unleaded gas in everyday use.

BTW: Widebands DON'T put out 0..5V or 0..1V for that matter. WB controllers MAY put out a voltage. What voltage for what AFR range is dependent on whatever the designer of the controller deemed neccessary. The LM-1's outputs are programmable to whatever AFR/voltage curve you want, including the curve of a stock O2.

Also:
Replacing the stock O2 sensor with a WB that SIMULATES a NBO2 is easily done. The problem is that the ECU monitors the heater of a heated stock O2 sensor (&gt; 1 wire) to determine if there is a wiring problem. Just removing the stock O2 can cause a CEL AND can cause the ECU to ignore the O2 input (it thinks the O2 sensor is broken). Check out which wires are the heater wires of your stock O2. In most cases you can fool the ECU by wiring in a brake light bulb (18W) instead of the heater. The ECU is satisfied because it sees the right 'heater' resistance.

Regards

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blbvtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The wideband was put in those cars to get better gas mileage/economy. Why in the hell would you want better fuel economy if you had to spend that much to replace a sensor all the time</TD></TR></TABLE>

Better fuel economy isn't marketed to consumers just as a coincidence. Remember the feds require a certain MPG avg for the manufacturer's entire fleet regardless of the extra cost to consumers. That cost to consumers becomes a marketing problem, and usually corners are cut elsewhere.

 

In case you guys don't know, and to everyone that reads this thread and gets confused...

klatinn = designer + creator of the Innovative LM-1 wideband O2 sensor package. In this case, consider his word the ultimate authority

Interesting trick with the brake light bulb - I'm not sure whether I'd want to trial run that one on my own car, but it might save me buying a blown O2 sensor just to hook up three wires and leave it non-sensing.

 

Thanks for the answers guys. I have another question. Does anyone know how to make an O2 simulator?